1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally concerned with marker devices used to identify or to mark electrical equipment such as cables, terminal blocks, etc.
It is more particularly directed to marker devices sometimes called "protected" marker devices which are designed to be fitted into a marker device holder attached for this purpose to the equipment concerned.
They carry a digit, a letter or any other conventional symbol, for example, and are generally used in combinations made up according to specific requirements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At present such marker devices are usually supplied as a stick of separable marker devices comprising a support on which a plurality of marker devices of the same kind are detachably mounted in a row.
At present, the marker devices are usually adhesively bonded to the support.
This has various drawbacks.
First and foremost, as the support and the marker devices are manufactured separately, a multiplicity of separate and successive operations is required to assemble each stick of separable marker devices.
It is necessary to manufacture the support and also to produce the marker devices, which might be extruded, for example, in which case the extruded product must then be cut to the required length. Finally, the marker devices must be adhesively bonded to the support.
This results in a high unit cost.
Adhesive bonding provides inadequate control over the fixing of the marker devices to the support and experience shows that it is not rare for some at least of the marker devices to be detached prematurely from the support during successive handling operations, which in practice means that they are lost.
Finally, as the marker devices are necessarily applied as closely as possible to the support, in order to be properly secured to it, it is often difficult to pick them off, even when a picking device is used, as is the usual practice.
A general object of the present invention is an arrangement whereby these drawbacks can be eliminated and additional advantages obtained.